Lorenz Hart (1895 - 1943), US. Lyricist
Lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. He "had a remarkable talent for polysyllabic and internal rhymes", and his lyrics have often been praised for their wit and technical sophistication.
For years Hart was a bachelor and lived with his widowed mother. He suffered from alcoholism. He would sometimes disappear for weeks at a time on alcoholic binges. Hart died in New York City of pneumonia from exposure after a bout of heavy drinking
Mabel Hampton (1902 - 1989),US.
American lesbian activist, a dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, and a philanthropist for both black and lesbian/gay organizations.
William Hutt
(1920 – 2007) Canadian
Stage, television and film actor, whose career spanned more than fifty years.
Howard Cruse
(1944 – ) US
Alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics.
Cruse is married to Eddie Sedarbaum.
Lesley Gore
(1946 – ) US
Singer, best known for her 1963 pop hit "It's My Party", which she recorded at the age of 16. Following the hit, she became one of the most recognized teen pop singers of the 1960s. Her later career has included songwriting and television presenting. Beginning in 2004, Gore hosted the PBS television series "
In the Life", which focused on LGBT issues. In a 2005 interview, she came out publicly as a lesbian. As of the time of the interview, she had been living with her partner for more than 23 years
Ed Murray
(1955 – ) US
Politician who serves in the Washington State Senate. Currently one of six openly gay members of the Washington State Legislature,he has been active in advancing LGBT rights. He led the push for an anti-discrimination law protecting gays and lesbians in 2006, he was also the main sponsor of legislation creating domestic partnerships, approved in 2007, and prominent in the push that achieved marriage equality legislation in 2012
Stephen Daldry
(1961 – ) UK
Theatre and film director and producer. In addition to two Tony awards for his stage work, he is notable for having had all of the feature films that he directed, nominated for Best Director or Best Picture at the Academy Awards
Michael Grandage
(1962 – ) UK
Award-winning British theatre director and producer. He is currently Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company. From 2002 to 2012 he was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse in London
David McAlmont
(1967 –) UK
Singer and songwriter
Christopher Lee Nutter
(1970 – ) US
Writer, the author of "
The Way Out: The Gay Man’s Guide to Freedom, No Matter if You’re in Denial, Closeted, Half In, Half Out, Just Out, or Been Around the Block" , and co-author of "
Ignite the Genius Within").
Dean Arcuri
(1978 – ) Australian
Singer / Actor / Playwright / Director
Died this day
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) Italian
Renaissance polymath, renowned primarily as a painter whose Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time. However, he was also notable as a sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.
His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation. Much has been written about his presumed homosexuality and its role in his art, particularly in the androgyny and eroticism manifested in John the Baptist and Bacchus and more explicitly in a number of erotic drawings. Leonardo's most intimate relationships were perhaps with his pupils Salai and Melzi.It has been claimed since the 16th century that these relationships were of a sexual or erotic nature.
William Thomas Beckford (1760– 1844 ) UK
A profligate and consummately knowledgeable art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed to be the richest commoner in England. In spite of his great wealth and culture, he was ostracised by English society after knowledge emerged of a sexual fling in his youth with a younger cousin. His vast wealth allowed him to ignore the general opprobrium, and surrounded himself at his enormous estate, Fonthill, with a harem of boy-servants.
He was also the author of the first English Gothic novel, "
Vathek".
Joseph McCarthy ( 1908 - 1957 ) The red baiting homophobe was actually a closet gay. The number of American lives destroyed in the '50s by his "outing Communists" numbered in the tens of thousands in America.
Justin Fashanu (1959/61 - 1998) UK
Footballer who was known by his early clubs to be gay, and came out to the press later in his career, to become the first and only English professional footballer to be openly homosexual. Until former France international Olivier Rouyer came out in 2008, Fashanu was still the only professional footballer in the world to disclose that he was gay.
Fashanu hanged himself in May 1998,at a time when he was wanted in the United States on charges of sexually assaulting a teenager in Maryland. In his suicide note, he insisted that the sex had been consensual.
Since his death, he has been frequently held up as a role model, to encourage other sporting figures to come out publicly, as in this BBC documentary.
Gene Raymond (1908– 1998) US
Actor / Composer / Director / Producer / Pilot
Jack Nichols (1938 -2005), US
Writer and gay activist, born in Washington as John Richard Nichols.
Jonathan Thomas
( ???? – 2005) US?
Sculptor
Tonette Lopez
(???? - 2006) Puerto Rican / US
Politician
